Save Water, Stones from Your Summer Steps

On Sunday, August 30, we will have our traditional Ingathering Service, which will include a Water and Stone Communion. Please remember to collect a small vial of water, or a stone, from your summer travels and activities, which you can share in the service.

Thank UUs; The Cakes You Baked Made Our Days

We'd like to thank all the folks who provided birthday cakes for our 2014-1015 church year: Mona Shannon, Marcy Joncich, Amber and Mike Higgins, Ann Odom, Cindy Loui, Anne Sharp, Virginia Brubaker, Gail Schiesser, Karla Peterson, and Jenna Zeidler. Thanks also to Lavanya Neelapa, who has volunteered to bring a cake for the first Sunday in August.

Now it’s your turn! Please consider providing a cake for the first Sunday of some month between July 2015 and June 2016. So far, August 2015 is the only date that is filled. You can get more information if you need it, or simply sign up, by contacting Virginia Brubaker at brubaker@nlpchicago.com.

From the Center from Global Studies: Host a Visiting Teacher

The Center for Global Studies (CGS) at the University of Illinois is proud to have been selected by the U.S. Department of State to host a five-week Study of the U.S. Institute (SUSI) for 20 teachers from around the world. This will be the third consecutive summer that CGS has hosted this program and we are excited to introduce a new group of international educators to our wonderful community. In past years, community members have enjoyed spending time with the SUSI teachers and helping them learn about our community. If you’d like to volunteer your time with this program, please visit our blog for the full announcement.

This summer's group hails from Belarus, Chad, Finland, France, French Guiana, Georgia, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Japan, Malawi, Mozambique, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkmenistan, and Uganda, Uzbekistan. To learn more about the participants and the program, please click here.

We would like our visitors to have opportunities to meet local residents for conversation and learn more about the rhythm of life in the American Midwest. We are seeking individuals and families to host international secondary school teachers for activities, such as a home-cooked meal, sporting event, worship service, Fourth of July picnic, etc. during their stay in the Champaign-Urbana community from June 21 to July 27.

In addition to helping to arrange informal opportunities for interaction with the SUSI international teachers, there are three specific activities that CGS has planned for host families and program participants:

The Fourth of July is an important holiday in American society. The SUSI international teachers will have the opportunity to spend a few hours or all day with a local family. In the past, families have hosted small groups of international teachers by inviting them to backyard barbecues, the parade, a pool party, and/or fireworks. Community members are encouraged to include the teachers in whatever activity your family does to celebrate Independence Day. 

July 17-19 is “Faith in America” weekend for the SUSI Program. We are looking for community members willing to take one to three international teachers to a religious service sometime during this weekend. We are looking for host families from a variety of faith traditions to show the diverse religious communities in our area and the United States. At the end of the weekend, the international teachers will reconvene to share their experiences and discuss the role of religion in American society.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Center for Global Studies Outreach Coordinator Jeremie Smith at smith193@illinois.edu or call our office at 217-244-9352.

Gehrmanns Called to Carmel

Dear Friends,
As you hopefully heard a few weeks ago, Elaine and I spent the last days of May visiting the UU Church of the Monterey Peninsula (UUCMP) in Carmel, California, meeting members and friends, and exploring the area. Last Sunday, the congregation voted to call us as their new co-ministers, and we accepted. This means Elaine and I will indeed be leaving Urbana-Champaign this summer, after nineteen remarkable years with you.

My last Sunday in the pulpit will be June 21st. The next day Elaine and I will head off to the UU General Assembly in Portland, Oregon, and after that I will enter my summer period of study leave and vacation, which – this year – will be spent packing up our possessions and, hopefully, selling our house in Urbana. My official last day as your minister is August 15th. August 15th also marks the arrival of your new interim minister, the Rev. Janet Newman.

In the Uniter and the E-News, you can find additional information about the upcoming transition, as well as events planned to celebrate the many good years we have shared.

The upcoming weeks will be busy, and I look upon them with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the changes and possibilities that lie ahead are exciting. On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine leaving this community and all our friends after many happy and rewarding years here. In the midst of it all, I feel a growing sense of gratitude for countless blessings, both past and future.

Please know that, despite the busyness, I am available to talk, to listen, and to answer questions you might have.

Deeply gratefully yours,
Axel

Reverend Roasting Revelries

Save the Date! On Saturday, June 13th, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., we’ll honor Axel and Elaine Gehrmann with a Roast and Toast Coffeehouse celebration. Please come and, if you can, sign up to contribute an appetizer or dessert – or even perform an act for the show. Beverages will be provided.

Relish the Chance to Ketchup at Picnic in the Park

Sunday, June 14 will be our last worship service with both Axel and Elaine Gehrmann. (Elaine cannot attend Axel's last service on June 21.) So come, celebrate the Gehrmanns as we worship, eat, and play at Crystal Lake Park in Urbana. There will be no worship service at church that day. The service will begin at 10:15 a.m. Bring your own lawn chair or blanket for worship. Also, bring your favorite picnic food to share – along with beverages, plates, napkins, knives, forks, and spoons for your crew.

Crystal Lake Park is located north of West Park Street, west of North Broadway Avenue. We will meet at the Large Pavilion, which is located near the parking lot off of North Central Avenue. There is a volleyball net and children’s playground nearby. You may want to add some picnic games and toys to your basket of goodies. Hope to see you there!

June Shared Offering: SCI

June's shared offering is the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, also known as SCI. In 2002, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave 20 million pounds (SCI is based in the United Kingdom) to establish SCI at Imperial College London. The award has been directed to delivering treatment for schistosomiasis and intestinal worms to millions of sub-Saharan Africans at high risk for serious disease. It now works to treat seven neglected tropical diseases. In 2013, SCI distributed its 100 millionth treatment for schistosomiasis.

Schistosomiasis has been mentioned a few times now, and it would be helpful to explain what it is. Sparing the most unpleasant details, it is a disease, also known as bilharzia or snail fever, which is caused by several species of parasitic worms that live and breed in the blood vessels of humans. The worms cause malnutrition, anemia, infertility, and long-term problems in the bladder and liver. It is also the most deadly neglected tropical disease, with an overall impact second only to malaria. It is estimated to extinguish the lives of between 12,000 and 200,000 people every year. To bring those numbers home, that’s somewhere between the population of Rantoul and the whole of Champaign County dying every year. Every year; and it debilitates far more.

There are many charities and nonprofits that work to manage diseases, so why does SCI stand apart from these other admirable organizations? SCI has developed a very efficient and cost-effective delivery system for five drugs used to treat seven separate neglected tropical diseases. Doses are deployed in school-based settings, where communities already congregate. Givewell, a stellar charity research and rating agency that thoroughly investigates charities, estimates it costs approximately $1.23 to administer a one treatment... or to put it a different way, parking on campus for just under an hour and 14 minutes.

Today and for the rest of this month you have a tremendous power. You could fund a life-saving treatment for a human being with your pocket change. Please give generously.